Religious Pluralism

Matthew S. LoPresti

doi:10.5771/9781793614407

Summary

Ultimate reality is often characterized in terms of what are thought to be a variety of incompatible concepts, like God, Dao, Brahman, śūnyatā, etc. Matthew S. LoPresti suggests that if we shift to a process metaphysics, our horizon of pluralistic understanding shifts as well, allowing multiple religious ultimates, effective religious practices, and their respective salvific projects to simultaneously exist without contradiction. Religious Pluralism: Towards a Comparative Metaphysics of Religion examines the plausibility of a genuine religious pluralism, arguing in favor of the authenticity of a plurality of the world’s major religious traditions.

Responses to the philosophical challenges of religious diversity have often been misidentified as forms of relativism or pluralisms, so this book provides a more robust taxonomy to encourage the field to be more uniform and precise. LoPresti argues that John B. Cobb, Jr.’s Whiteheadian-based approach, known as “Deep Religious Pluralism,” functions as a non-relativistic basis for a meta-theology of world religions. Through discussions of classical and contemporary South Asian philosophy, Western analytic philosophy, and process philosophy, in addition to the writings of Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), LoPresti argues that a proper engagement with religious pluralism requires intimate knowledge of Western and non-Western traditions.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-1439-1
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-1440-7
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 224
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. List of Figures No access
4. Preface No access
5. Acknowledgments No access
6. Introduction No access
1. 1. On Griffin’s Taxonomy No access
  2. A New Taxonomy for Pluralistic Theologies No access
  3. Identism Is Not a Pluralism No access
  4. Differential Pluralistic Theologies No access
  5. Clearing a Middle Ground between Pluralistic Extremes No access
  6. 1. Epistemic Relativism No access
    2. Unsanctified Religious “Pluralism” No access
    3. Popular Religious “Pluralism” No access
2. 1. The Case of Joseph Runzo’s Henofideism No access
  2. Diana Eck’s Pluralism Project No access
3. Genuine Religious Pluralism—A Definition No access
4. Conclusion No access
5. Notes No access
1. Ontological Ultimates No access
2. Religious Ultimates No access
3. Deep Religious Pluralism as Tentative Schemata No access
4. 1. Descriptive Ontology, Not Dogma, as the Norm for Determining the Compossibility of Ontological cum Religious Ultimates No access
  2. Absence of Hierarchy No access
  3. Genericism No access
5. The Ontological Problematique Facing Religious Pluralism No access
6. Notes No access
1. 1. The Process Point of View No access
  2. 1. A Nexūs of Monads No access
    2. “Things” No access
  3. Concrescence No access
  4. 1. Limitation of Actual Occasions No access
    2. Divine Illimitable Perception and the Finitude of Human Perception No access
    3. Feeling the World: The Turn from Objectivity to Subjectivity No access
  5. 1. Prehending Potentiality No access
  6. Conclusion No access
2. 1. 1. Time No access
    2. The One and The Many No access
    3. Free and Playful Creativity No access
  2. 1. Internal Reasons for Deity No access
    2. Process Theodicy and Process Conceptions of Divine Qualities No access
    3. Divine Perfection No access
  3. Conclusion No access
3. Process Philosophy and Prayerful Worship in Deep Religious Pluralism No access
4. Notes No access
1. Pluralism as Unsophisticated or Sycophantic Rhetoric? No access
2. Taking Mystics Seriously No access
3. 1. Different Cats, Different Ultimates No access
  2. Making Sense of the Mutual Exclusivity Thesis No access
  3. A Problem with Language and Ontology No access
  4. A Meaningful but Improper Statement of Ontological Pluralism No access
4. Religious Roots of Ontological Exclusivism? No access
5. Conclusion No access
6. Notes No access
1. 1. “The” South Asian Tradition No access
  2. Indian Religious Absolutism No access
  3. The Ninth Incarnation of Vişņu: Hinduism’s Absorptive Tendency No access
  4. Reconciling Ŗşis No access
2. 1. Exclusivist Renderings of IX.23 No access
  2. The Pluralist Abhinavagupta? No access
  3. Translations of IX.23 No access
  4. Surface Pluralism, Deep Absolutism No access
  5. Rebirth, Karma, Context, and Conclusion No access
3. Jeffery Long’s Formulation of a Hindu/Whiteheadian Religious Pluralism No access
4. 1. Hindu Apologetics No access
  2. The First Semantic Distinction No access
  3. The Second Semantic Distinction No access
  4. Hindu Pan-Inclusivism No access
  5. Conclusion No access
  6. Ontological Identism vs. Pluralistic Ontological Schemata No access
5. Non-Dual Indian Pluralism? No access
6. Conclusion No access
7. Notes No access
1. 1. On Dialogue in General: Why Do People Talk to One Another? No access
  2. 1. Relative Theological Bases for Interreligious Dialogue No access
    2. A Philosophical Basis for Interreligious Dialogue No access
    3. The Relative Purpose of Interreligious Dialogue No access
2. 1. 1. Absolutist or Relativist Soteriologies: A False Dichotomy No access
    2. The False Dichotomy Regarding The Unique Saving Power of Christ No access
3. 1. 1. Evangelical Tool or Relativist Credo? No access
    2. Pluralistic Evangelism? No access
  2. Genuine Interreligious Dialogue No access
  3. Generic Pluralistic Assumptions as the Hermeneutical Basis for Genuine Interreligious Dialogue No access
  4. Whitehead’s Metaphysical Pluralism as a Philosophical Basis for Genuine Interreligious Dialogue No access
4. 1. Absolutisms in Dialogue: Understanding without Embracing No access
  2. Religious Pluralism Is the Necessary Ground for Religious Absolutisms in Dialogue No access
5. Conclusion No access
6. Notes No access
Notes No access Pages 200 - 202
Appendix No access Pages 203 - 204
Bibliography No access Pages 205 - 210
Index No access Pages 211 - 222
About the Author No access Pages 223 - 224